1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to communication between computer devices across wireless computer networks. More particularly, the invention relates to wireless devices having the ability to classify an incoming communication attempt, such as a phone call, and perform a predetermined action based upon the identification.
2. Description of the Related Art
In communication exchanges, such as voice and data telephone calls, it is desirous to know the identity of an incoming communication attempt for several reasons. Firstly, where the bridging of the communication connection, such as a connected telephone call, costs the device owner or subscriber money, the owner may not want to get charged for a specific incoming call. Secondly, the device owner may not want to waist time talking to the caller or receiving data from the caller because the caller is a solicitor, marketer, or some other person or entity the device owner does not wish to communicate with. Thus, several technologies have developed for land-line based telephone and telecommunication systems for a person to screen the incoming phone call.
In particular regard to telephone calling, it is known to transmit identifying data at the beginning a communication connection attempt so that the called device can identify the caller. One specific version of this identification is called “Caller ID” (CID), or Calling Number Delivery (CND). This system was created as an extension of Automatic Number Identification (ANI) which is used by telephone companies to identify the billing account for a toll call.
The CID information is transmitted on the telephone service subscriber loop using modem tones that transmit the identification display message in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) character code form to the device receiving the phone call. The transmission of the display message typically takes place between the first and second “rings.” The message consists of a channel seizure string followed by a mark string and then the caller information. The information is sent in one of two formats: “Single Data Message Format” (SDMF) which contains the date, time, and calling number; and the “Multiple Data Message Format” (MDMF) contains the date, time, calling number, and the name associated with that number. Optionally, the number and name fields may contain data indicating that the information has been blocked by the caller or is unavailable. Since the time CID was first made available, it has been expanded to offer CID on “call waiting,” or where the call waiting tone is heard during an ongoing telephone conversation and the identification of the second incoming call is seen.
The need to identify incoming communication attempts is greater among wireless computer devices that have the ability to communicate voice and data to each other, such as cellular telephones. The subscriber or owner of the telephone is charged for all airtime used by the device so any incoming call answered costs the user.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a system for a wireless computer device, such as a cellular telephone, PDA, or other telecommunication device, to have a means to identify and/or classify an incoming communication attempt so that an undesired connection can be avoided with a predetermined response from the wireless device. Such system should be able to selectively handle the incoming communication without the need for user interaction to affect the response. It is thus to the provision of such a system and method that the present invention is primarily directed.